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Chapter 4 | Working with related tables and files 90
Because the relationship is defined to allow the creation of related records in the Contacts table,
the Customer ID number from a Customers record will be automatically inserted in the Customer
ID field in the Contacts table in each new related record. This allows many records in the Contacts
table to be related to a single record in the Customers table.
You can then add a portal to the Contacts table on the Customer layout. When you enter a phone
number or an email address in an empty portal row in the Customers table, FileMaker
Pro creates
a related record for that phone number or email address in the Contacts table.
Multi-criteria relationships
In a multi-criteria relationship, you increase the number of match fields, which increases the
criteria that FileMaker
Pro evaluates before successfully joining related records. In a multi-criteria
relationship, FileMaker
Pro compares the values from each match field on each side of the
relationship in the order in which the fields appear. This is called an AND comparison; to match
successfully, every match field must find a corresponding value in the other table.
In this relationship, both TextFieldA and NumberFieldA are match fields to TableB. A record in
TableA with a TextFieldA value of Blue and a NumberFieldA value of 123 will only match those
records in TableB where both TextFieldB and NumberFieldB have values of Blue and 123,
respectively. If TextFieldA and TextFieldB have matching values, but NumberFieldA and
NumberFieldB do not, no related records are returned by the relationship.
Use a multi-criteria relationship to relate two tables based on more than one common value, such
as a customer ID and a date.
For example, a catering equipment rental database has three tables: Equipment, a static table that
stores equipment rental inventory; Customers, which stores customer names and addresses; and
Catering Line Items, which stores a record of each equipment rental, including the equipment ID,
the customer ID, and the event date. The purpose of this database is to track equipment rentals
and display all rentals by a selected customer on a selected date.
Match field
Match field
Match fields
Match fields